That Time
by CANDYisEpic
Summary: Hey, remember That Time...?" Mello and Matt recall some of "Those Times". Mello tries to scam the tooth fairy, poor Near gets scared shitless, and Matt eats way, way too many tangerines. Oneshot. T to be safe... Theres a Clarinet too...


Authors Notes/Disclaimer(s): Don't own Death Note (*cries at the injustice*) and I also don't own the song "That Time" by Regina Spektor.

So this is my little Matt and Mello fic for Suzette. I can not express in words just how much fun this fic was to write, but I hope you find it as much fun to read as I found it to write. And please also ignore the fact that "Delancey" is a location in NY and there is no logical reason for them ever being there in their childhood. Other than that, please, let me know what you think of it. ^^

Can be taken as MelloxMatt but you don't have to.  
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**~ That Time ~**

Now that the little room was actually furnished a little, Mello and Matt were able to unpack some of the bags that had survived the journey. Or rather, Matt was able to unpack the bags, as Mello, upon finding the chocolate supply, figured it was time for a well deserved break. He was just beginning to settle into the black couch with his so declared 'true love' when he heard the clicking open of two metal clasps at once. A sound all-too-familiar. His head whipped around, then he cursed, and not under his breath either.

"What the fuck, man, you actually _brought _that piece of shit?"

"I'm hurt, Mello." Matt said, ginning evilly, for him. Video Games wasn't the only thing Matt could do. He now caressed in his hands the machine that Mello had often called 'the bane of my miserable existence'. Matt had always called it the 'Clarinet'.

It was a battered old instrument, victim of many a 'Mello moment', with quite a few large chunks missing from the violet fibreglass body. The stings were all different colours and ages, and the volume knob had been broken off and lost in the instrument's Epic Journey down a couple flights of stairs. Now the volume was stuck on 'very loud'. Whenever Mello complained Matt would remind him it was his own fault. Mello maintained it was Near's. On the violet body of the old guitar matt had painted in blood red; "THIS MACHINE PWNS NOOBS." Mello didn't even bother asking.

"Of course I brought it," Matt laughed in reply to Mello's heated question, "What else am I gonna do with it? Leave it at Whammy's?" He slung it over his shoulder and plugged in the cord, then turned away to plug the other end into the amplifier that Mello had totally neglected to notice earlier. Something made Matt hesitate for a moment; made him stop what he was doing. He spoke, softly.

"It's not like we'll ever be going back there."

Mello could think of no reply to that, so instead he bit off a piece of the chocolate as an excuse. The snap echoed a little awkwardly around the tiny room. Matt shrugged off the thought that made him stop and settled himself into the one couch not occupied by his violent best friend.

"You know Mello," he began, "of all the crazy shit you've blackmailed me into doing over the years, kidnapping someone just about takes the cake." He began to strum out some grungy chords, absently.

"You've been mentioning cake an awful lot lately." Mello observed/evaded. Matt shrugged, but was grinning.

"Its a Lie." he replied, enigmatically. Mello was aware there was some sort of joke that he was not in on, which ticked him off greatly, so he decided to ignore it. Matt absently played a few more chords, until he appeared to find the ones he was looking for.

"Hey Mells, wanna hear my new song?"

"No." Mello grumbled, but Matt had already begun to sing. The melody was simple, catchy even, against Clarinet's grungy background.

"_Hey remember that time when I found a human tooth, down on Delancey?" _

Mello grinned, despite himself, as the words brought up the memory. The image of Matt's wide-eyed, fascinated nine year old face, and then of his own subsequent scheme to get the tooth fairy to visit. Of Matt's shock at the idea 'What the hell, Mells?! You can't scam a deity!! It's just not natural!!'

"Yeah, actually..." he replied in the present, under his breath.

"_Hey remember that time we decided to kiss anywhere except the mouth?"_

Mello half grinned, half grimaced at that, and suddenly he was there again.

It was summer. They had been fourteen years old, hot, impatient, and also awfully bored.

'Ready?' a pause met the question. Then;

'Okay.' The redhead boy closed his eyes and screwed his face up in apprehension. Mello considered the situation for a moment, wondering where Matt would least expect. Something that would throw him off... When Matt felt soft lips just behind his left ear, he almost jumped in shock.

'What are you doing?' came a soft, expressionless voice from the door, and both fourteen year old heads snapped around to the door frame where a small, white haired boy stood, clutching a toy robot to his chest and looking at them in confusion and even a little worry. Mello smirked when he saw the brief flicker of that barely visible emotion in the younger boy's panda-eyes and decided to take advantage of it.

He grabbed Matt and pulled him close, pressing his cheek into the red head's neck, looking at Near with smouldering eyes all the while.

'Back off, bitch, he _mine.' _Mello had growled.

The worry in Near's eyes had turned into plain, basic fear, and the boy was gone even quicker than he had appeared. Mello had collapsed into gales of laughter. Matt still had to recover from his state of shock.

Matt's voice brought Mello back into the present.

"_Hey remember that time when my favourite colours was, pink and green?"_

"_..._No?... Wait, _when the fuck_-" Mello started but Matt, smirking was already moving on.

"_Hey remember that month when I only ate, boxes of tan-ger-ines?" _

Suddenly Mello could smell that ever-present citrus scent, could see the half-full crates littering their shared room. Could see the perplexed look on Rogers face when he discovered Matt sitting in a nest of them, for the very first time.

He could hear Matt's response, in the weirdest voice Rodger had ever heard him use.

'So **cheap** and _**JUICY!!!!**_'

"_Tan- Ger- Ines," _sang Matt. "_Hey remember that time when I would only read, Shaaaakespeare?"_

Mello remembered. They were around fifteen and Matt began starting to speak in iambic pentameter just to piss Mello off. It didn't help that he had sometimes gone on a rhyming spree. And that Near began to talk in Haiku soon afterwards in acceptance of the challenge he had inferred from Matt's behaviour.

Mello had protested long and hard. The memory gave him an idea, though, so before Matt had a chance to open his mouth Mello improvised the next line, smirking.

"_Hey remember that other time when I would only read the backs of cereal boxes?"_

He was rewarded with a face full of guitar handle for his efforts, but he had been expecting as much.

"What the hell Mello?? That doesn't even rhyme!!" Mello couldn't help but burst into laughter at the look on his friend's face, as a little blood trickled from his split lip.

"Oh hey, sorry about that..." Matt said upon seeing it. Mello smacked him in the back of the head. "Keep singing!" he ordered, and Matt obliged.

"_Hey remember that time when I tried to save a pigeon with a broken wing?"_

Mello snorted at that. He remembered very well. He had prepared a little box for it and a warm lamp and Roger had supplied him with birdseed. Matt's eyes had been wide and glassy with wonder as he looked at his new charge which, naturally, desperately cowered away from him whenever he drew near.

"_A street cat got him by morning and I had to bury pieces of his body in our building's playground..." _

It had been Matt's first experience with death. He took it pretty well, Mello heard Watari say...

"_I thought I was gonna be sick."_

On the upside, though, they had found the cat and were to keep that as a pet until Roger discovered it sleeping one fateful afternoon. It had been a rather violent cat. Of course, being the angsty person that he was, no one would believe Mello if he explained to them exactly where the scars all over his arms and wrists _actually_ came from.

"_Hey remember that time when I would only smoke, Paaaaarliaments?"_

"Uhuh." Mello replied, rolling his eyes. Mello wanted to remind Matt of "That Time" the redhead had first tried cigarettes, vomited all over the pavement, and swore never again, but Matt was still singing.

"_Hey remember that time when I would only smoke, Maaaaarlboros?" _

"God how am _**I**_ supposed to keep tra-"shot Mello.

"_Hey remember that time when I would only smoke, Caaaaaamels?"_

"FOR CHRISTS SAKE!! YOU SMOKE A LOT!! **I GET IT!!!**_"_

Matt was the one who got a face full this time, but it was of Mello's elbow as the blonde youth climbed on top of him, trying to shut him up or at least muffle the sounds somehow. Mello found a pillow within reach and covered his best friend's mouth with it. Matt was still making noises though; Mello thought he distinguished the word "RAPE!" coming from his captive, and he snickered to himself. Once Matt stopped fighting Mello removed the pillow, glaring his friend right in the eye with a 'Are you ready to be good now?' expression on his face. Matt grinned at him.

"_Hey remember that time when I was broke?"_

Mello raised an eyebrow.

"_I didn't care I just bummed from my friends." _Matt half-sang half-giggled.

"Namely me." Mello shot, still sitting on Matt.

"_Bummed bummed ba bummed bummed," _Matt sang cheerfully, then stopped playing the guitar, and looked Mello in the eye, no longer smiling.

"_Hey remember that time when you od'ed?" _he sang quietly. Mello's face fell in response and he looked down at the pillow he still held in his hands. There was a very long, subdued silence. Matt picked at the strings again almost hesitantly.

"_Hey remember that other time when you od'ed... for the second...time...?" _Matt's voice was shaking...from supressed...laughter??

Mello couldn't help it.

They found themselves collapsing on each other in fits of hysteria, clutching their sides which were beginning to ache. Tears actually started to tickle down Mello's face.

"God... Mello you're such a... retard." Matt managed to choke out between breaths. Mello hit him.

"Finish the song!!" the blonde managed to order through the fits of hysteria. Matt struggled to pull himself together and pick up the Clarinet once more.

"_Well in the waiting room while waiting for news of you I hallucinated I could read your mind." _he sang.

Mello laughed some more. "Serious?"

Matt nodded giving him a significant look.

"_And I was on a lot of shit too but what I saw, man, I tell you it was freeeeeeeeaky. FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAKY!"_ Matt strummed the last chord with a flourish.

"What did you see?" asked Mello as Matt chucked his beloved Clarinet over the back of the couch where it made a resounding thud, complete with feedback.

Matt leaned in closer and whispered in Mello's left ear "Tangerines man. Pink and green tangerines with broken wings and sharp claws, smoking cigarettes and quoting Shakespeare."

There was a short silence while they still leaned into one another.

"Bull_shit_." snorted the blonde.

The redhead grinned evilly in response and bit his friend's neck, just below the ear, not quite hard enough to draw blood.

"Bastard!" the blonde cried out as he jumped away, but he was laughing.

"Vengeance, my friend." Matt replied, still grinning.

"I didn't fucking _bite you!!" _Mello protested.

"Nevertheless, I was catatonic for a week. And Near for even longer, I'm led to believe. Now get your own god-damn couch!" He finished, pushing Mello off of the one he presently occupied with his feet.

Mello sauntered over to the other black couch, where he picked up a bar from the new box he hadn't opened yet. The one Matt had bought. He barely glanced at the wrapper but when he did he did a double-take.

"Citrus Flavoured Chocolate?" He asked, without turning around, hiding the smile on his face.

"So Cheap and Juicy!" Matt replied sleepily, reaching behind him to flick off the light switch, nestling deeper into the couch.

The last sounds he heard that night was the tearing of foil and the satisfying snap of chocolate.

___________________________________

A note on references:

There are quite a few references in here which I suppose I should explain. First and foremost the song is the real song which inspired me to write this called "That Time" (funnily enough) and it is by/belongs to Regina Spektor. (Which I think I mentioned.) If you don't know it I HIGHLY recommend you at least go look it up on Youtube or something to listen to it because its just worth it.

Some of the other references (the ones I can think of right now anyway) are "The Cake is a Lie" which is from Portal, a very popular computer game, which I figure Matt, (being a self-respecting Nerd and all) would probably know. It sometimes makes you wonder if anyone ever told L that the cake was a lie...and how he might react...

"THIS MACHINE PWNS NOOBS" is a nerdfighters reference, so I don't own that either, but I'm not sure who exactly does... The Green Brothers? It's all very complicated...

The last one I can think of is pretty obscure and is in reference to an episode of the Muppet Show where Gonzo the Great commands guest star Paul Simon to "Hand me that Clarinet!" whilst pointing at a guitar. I thought this was hilarious when I was eleven, so I always name random things Clarinet. Now it is immortalised in fanfic. ^^


End file.
